First and foremost, RIP to one of the most prolific artists to ever come out of hip-hop, Christopher Wallace. 21 years since his untimely passing and boy has the landscape shifted.

Gone are the days of hard hitting gangsta raps telling stories which have vacated and made space for melodic crooning and auto tune laced vibes. This brings me in to a topic that attracted quite a bit of controversy recently: Lil Xan’s opinion on Tupac’s music. Many were outraged, in fact, Waka Flocka and T.I. banned the up and coming artist from hip hop. In typical fashion, Charlamagne handed Xan the notorious Donkey of the Day.

I want to keep this brief, but I always like to say I see things from both sides being a 24-year-old fan of hip hop. I grew up in between old and new wave so I can appreciate both sides of the spectrum. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I, myself, probably won’t go past early 90s with regards to what I bump on the regular, unless I’m trying to give myself a history lesson. The music often sounds dated in a way that it can’t hold my attention.

Having said that, I respect it for what it is. Being a fan of this culture means studying how it came to be. Not necessarily knowing every crevice around every cornerstone in hip hop, but being appreciative enough of the genre to leave your distaste out of certain topics. Tupac is an icon and his name will forever be etched in history.

However, I’ll be damned if I didn’t realize a lot of y’all only use his name to try to further your ‘hipness’ to the culture. We are far removed from that time period of music. MCs coming up, Ie. Lil Pump, have no recollection of the 90s because they didn’t even live through it. Heads up, you don’t have to like either PAC nor BIG to show that you’re knowledgeable about hip-hop.

Basically, just be real with yourself and your opinions. At the same time, respect boundaries, such as those that were put in to place to catapult to genre where it is today. The music isn’t for you? Fine. But be prepared when all those that live and die by that man’s music come with pitchforks. Again, it isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s understandable why it may have rubbed some shoulders. I do want to see the gap between two generations get closed in, and it becomes harder when events like this grace the front page of IG.